SKY Airline (H2) Guide

SKY Airline is Chile’s second-largest airline and the first to use a low-cost model in the country.

Please note: bookingMentor is an independent travel service and is not affiliated with SKY Airline. Routes, schedules and baggage rules change, so always confirm the details of your booking with the airline.

What to expect

SKY Airline (IATA H2, ICAO SKU) is a Chilean low-cost airline based at Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport in Santiago, and the second-largest airline in Chile after LATAM. It flies across Chile and to Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay, and suits travellers who want a cheap seat on a new Airbus and are happy to pay separately for bags and seat choice.

From air taxi to low-cost carrier

SKY began in 1981 as Flight Service, a small air taxi company, and took the SKY Airline name in July 2001 when it started charter flights to Cuba with a Boeing 737-200. Domestic flights inside Chile followed in December 2001, and in June 2002 the airline opened its first routes from Santiago to the cities of northern Chile.

The driving force behind the company was Jürgen Paulmann, a German-Chilean businessman who took control in 1999 with a group of partners. His son Holger Paulmann now runs the airline as chief executive. SKY became a full member of IATA in 2005, and in the following years it signed commercial deals with Aerolíneas Argentinas, TACA and Avianca to sell connections beyond its own map.

The big change came in 2015 and 2016, when SKY rebuilt itself as a low-cost airline, the first Chilean carrier to do so. Before that switch it had won the Skytrax award for best regional airline in South America three years running (2014, 2015 and 2016), and OAG named it the most punctual airline of 2016.

Where SKY flies

Almost every SKY flight starts or ends in Santiago. The domestic network links the capital with cities along the length of Chile, from the mining towns of the far north to Patagonia in the south, and the international routes reach neighbouring Argentina and Peru as well as Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay.

A sister airline, SKY Airline Peru, runs domestic flights inside Peru, and the group also holds an Ecuadorian subsidiary, SKY Airline Ecuador. The airline lists around 45 destinations in total across the group. SKY also flies charters in Chile and elsewhere in South America.

For journeys beyond South America, SKY has interline agreements with Aerolíneas Argentinas, Air Europa, Air France, KLM, TAP Air Portugal and United Airlines. An interline ticket lets you book a SKY flight and a partner flight on one itinerary, which is useful when a long-haul arrival in Santiago or Lima needs an onward hop.

Ownership and the Abra Group link

Abra Group, the holding company that controls Avianca and the Brazilian airline GOL, announced an investment in SKY in June 2023 and later took a minority stake in SKY's parent company. The Paulmann family still runs the airline, and SKY keeps its own brand and network.

Before you fly with SKY

Santiago's airport is the place most travellers meet SKY, either on a domestic hop or on a connection to a long-haul flight. If your long-haul and SKY flights are on separate tickets, leave several hours between them, because a delay on the first flight will not be covered by the second airline.